MPC Memory?

Alright so it seems that the last guy selling the expansion upgrade sold out (sequentix).
Is there anyone developing new ones anytime soon? I was reading a post that said they may have some in the near future for 30 - 50 dollars. Now, granted that was about 5 years ago. I guess my main questions are 1.) is the hack job too risky and 2.) Does anyone know where I can find the expansion for a reasonable price if so? Theres one on ebay for 150, just trying to save some money if at all possible. Thanks for the read - happy holidays

John-E G wrote:Alright so it seems that the last guy selling the expansion upgrade sold out (sequentix).
Is there anyone developing new ones anytime soon? I was reading a post that said they may have some in the near future for 30 - 50 dollars. Now, granted that was about 5 years ago. I guess my main questions are 1.) is the hack job too risky and

Not "risky" if you know what you are doing. IMHO, many of the issues caused by the hack are due to poor workmanship. The "hack" isn't exactly flawless from a design perspective, but it works well enough I suppose.

Keep in mind that anytime you are reworking a PCB or heating ICs directly with a soldering iron you run the risk of damaging them. There are techniques that can reduce the thermal stress, but it does not eliminate the risk completely.

John-E G wrote:
2.) Does anyone know where I can find the expansion for a reasonable price if so? Theres one on ebay for 150, just trying to save some money if at all possible. Thanks for the read - happy holidays

It depends on what you consider reasonable. It's a niche item so there is not a lot of competition between vendors on pricing, though deals can pop up from time to time. Earlier this month a couple repaired memory expansions sold for under $40/each shipped so you just have to keep your eyes open for deals.

MPCHunter wrote:Not "risky" if you know what you are doing. IMHO, many of the issues caused by the hack are due to poor workmanship. The "hack" isn't exactly flawless from a design perspective, but it works well enough I suppose.

Yes, it seems to work, and should be OK if you can do a decent job of soldering.

But for a $100-120 saving, I wouldn't risk it.

MPCHunter wrote:It depends on what you consider reasonable. It's a niche item so there is not a lot of competition between vendors on pricing, though deals can pop up from time to time. Earlier this month a couple repaired memory expansions sold for under $40/each shipped so you just have to keep your eyes open for deals.

It was a second hand MPC60 memory board for $23.50, a repaired one for $15.50, and a second hand S950 memory board for $12.50, plus shipping.

But you don't see those sort of deals coming up very often, it could take a long time before another one does, and you have to jump on them quickly when they do.

Your best bet would be to pick one up from one of the two current/regular suppliers, artmix (Stratos Technology) in Japan at $150, or the dodgy French crew (who I would not trust) at $115.

Other than that, they do come up second hand occasionally at around $100-150.

Or if you are stupid, Armen's has one at $345.

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll try to do the hack, and if it fails I have nothing to lose because I would have had to buy the upgrade anyway. Again thanks for the input.

The Mpc 60 is becoming more and more of a rare beast. It's from 88. No offence, but Please don't hack another one if not completely necessary! Consider yourself lucky to have such an integral and important piece of sampler history in your possession and handle it with care and respect. Just my opinion.
Just save up a bit and get the memory online. I've bought the upgrade 3 times now, and all of them work fine. It ain't that hard. Be patient, you'll find one for a decent price eventually. Don't expect to get it for $50 tho.
Those hAck jobs have a bad rep for good reason.

Again no offence, just my opinion.

viacom wrote:The Mpc 60 is becoming more and more of a rare beast. It's from 88. No offence, but Please don't hack another one if not completely necessary! Consider yourself lucky to have such an integral and important piece of sampler history in your possession and handle it with care and respect. Just my opinion.
Just save up a bit and get the memory online. I've bought the upgrade 3 times now, and all of them work fine. It ain't that hard. Be patient, you'll find one for a decent price eventually. Don't expect to get it for $50 tho.
Those hAck jobs have a bad rep for good reason.

Again no offence, just my opinion.

completely agree. be patient and buy the proper expansion. i bought it as well, its an easy fit and works great. since you own a 60 you will probably need to spend a few dollars on maintenance now and then so don;t think your making a massive save hacking it especially if you are planning on keeping the mp.

totally worth buying the ram versus attempting a hack on the 60 boards

soundtech wrote:

viacom wrote:The Mpc 60 is becoming more and more of a rare beast. It's from 88. No offence, but Please don't hack another one if not completely necessary! Consider yourself lucky to have such an integral and important piece of sampler history in your possession and handle it with care and respect. Just my opinion.
Just save up a bit and get the memory online. I've bought the upgrade 3 times now, and all of them work fine. It ain't that hard. Be patient, you'll find one for a decent price eventually. Don't expect to get it for $50 tho.
Those hAck jobs have a bad rep for good reason.

Again no offence, just my opinion.

completely agree. be patient and buy the proper expansion. i bought it as well, its an easy fit and works great. since you own a 60 you will probably need to spend a few dollars on maintenance now and then so don;t think your making a massive save hacking it especially if you are planning on keeping the mp.

totally worth buying the ram versus attempting a hack on the 60 boards

You guys are making this "hack" out to be a much bigger deal than it actually is.

In fact, the only real modifications made to the MPC 60 are installing IC sockets in place of the soldered RAM chips.

Outside of a few wires, the rest of the "hack" is placed into these sockets and can easily be removed or modified.

The reason those RAM chips were not socketed originally is likely a cost saving move by Akai.

If your MPC developed a fault with that bank of memory, a good technician would install sockets before replacing the RAM ICs. And if you have a well-made memory expansion with DIP ICs, I bet those chips are seated in sockets.

Most of the issues ("bad rep") that are created by the hack are due to poor workmanship.

I don't agree with the long term reliability of socketed RAM, in other applications I have seen too many issues where contact between the socket and the pins have contact issues over time, I think that soldered RAM chips are more reliable in the long term.

Not sure that soldering directly to the RAM expansion connector pins, as in the photo below, is a good way to go, as that might create problems if you want to remove the hack to switch to a normal expansion board. I would maybe run the wires to the underside of the PCB, and solder them to the pins underneath the connector, rather than the pins in the connector.

It also depends on having decent desoldering/soldering skills, so that you can remove and replace the factory RAM chips without damaging the PCB.

But if you have the desoldering/soldering skills, it probably isn't really that much of an issue, I just wouldn't do it myself to save $100.

No offense taken, I agree, why chance it. However I do agree with the argument that it has a bad rep only for those that are not skilled laborers. I do also acknowledge the counter argument to that as well.
For anyone who was interested it ended up having the upgrade already on it, when I called about the machine, the guy said it only had 320kb free which led me to believe that it had standard 780kb storage. However, once I got it, my light suspicions where assured that he had checked the free space after loading 10-15 drums already. So crisis averted